Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
The year is 1900, and Victor Narraway is giving his wife, Vespasia, an unforgettable Christmas present a trip to Jerusalem. Vespasia is enchanted by the exotic landscape of Palestine, and charmed by a fellow traveler the Narraways meet at their hotel in Jaffa. But when the man is murdered over a torn piece of ancient parchment he was taking to Jerusalem, Victor and Vespasia risk their lives to finish his mission. Pursued by a shadowy figure with evil intent, they embark on a dangerous yet ultimately enlightening pilgrimage to the holy city.

My Review:A Christmas Message is a suspense novel set in 1900 in Palestine. A man is murdered in Jaffa, where our hero and heroine are staying briefly before taking a train to Jerusalem. They discover that he slipped them an ancient document in a foreign language and asked them to deliver it to a shop on the Via Dolorosa on Christmas Eve. They set out for the train, and the killer is after them.

Then the story gets really surreal. I kept expecting the heroine to wake up and discover it was all a dream. The descriptions of the people and the landscape seemed based more on symbolism than reality. The 39 mile trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem came across as a long, dark journey across a flat desert (even though they started out in daylight, Jerusalem is in the hill country, etc.). Almost everyone they met were inhuman beings (or at least not normal human beings) who spoke cryptically or philosophically. Not what I was expecting.

So the story turns out to be a spiritual journey. They concluded that we need to follow our inner guiding vision (the true "star of Bethlehem") and you should love God whatever way you wish, shouldn't condemn people who follow another religion as everyone will get the eternity promised by his religion, and all you need to do to gain God's forgiveness is forgive others.

There were no sex scenes. There was a very minor amount of bad language.

If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

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About Me

My name is Debbie. I'm a single female in my thirties. I have three book review blogs: one for well-written, clean fiction; one for nonfiction (memoirs, history, military, religion, and social issues); and a book club for Christian nonfiction.

My other review blogs

Why this blog?

I like to read, but it can be hard to find clean mainstream fiction anymore. Hopefully this blog will help others who have similar reading tastes to find clean novels to read.

In my reviews, I try to point out elements that I think readers may wish to know which might influence their decision to read a book. I'm not trying to convince people not to read a book as I'm fully aware that some things which bother me won't bother others at all. So if a book sounds fun to you, certainly give it a try!

Disclosure StatementI'm not paid to review books. I do receive free review copies from publishers, authors, etc., but I also review books I've bought or checked out of the library. I review all books by the same standard, no matter the source. My readers are assuming I am, and the publishers expect it.